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Reading Poetry with Middle School Students

1.
Reading Poetry with Middle
School Students
•Mary Ann Reilly
•Blueprints for Learning

2.
• Pause for a moment and reflect: What words or phrases
come to mind when you think about the teaching of
writing?
• Working individually and as quickly as you can for the next
five (5) minutes, write each item you think of on a
separate sticky-note and stick each note on your group’s
(blank) poster.

3.
• You should have a pile of sticky notes
spread randomly across your poster.
• Work together to sort all the notes
into appropriate groupings.
• Label each grouping.

4.
For something to be a
masterpiece,
you have to have enough time to
talk
when you have nothing to say.
– John Cage, Lecture on Nothing

5.
The World Is Too Much With Us
--William Wordsworth
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
Are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. — Great God! I’d rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.

6.
How do you eat an elephant?
• Let’s start with a basic understanding of what the poem
might be talking about.
• Re-read the poem and circle all the words (including
references) that are unfamiliar or that you are unsure of.
• Use a dictionary and look up all the circled words and
write the definitions next to the appropriate lines in the
poem.

7.
• Re-read the poem (again), substituting the definitions you
just wrote for the words in the poem.
• Write a brief (2-3 sentences) paraphrase of what the
poem is about. Share your paraphrase with a partner.

11.
The World Is Too Much With Us
--William Wordsworth
The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
Are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. — Great God! I’d rather be
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathèd horn.
a
b
b
a
a
b
b
a
c
d
c
d
c
d

12.
After all this work, what happens when
students are asked to respond to a
question like this:
How does Wordsworth’s use of
figurative language extend the meaning of
the poem “The World is Too Much With
Us”?

13.
And how does the depth of that response
temper the way in which you might
respond to students’ writing?